So when cold-weather teams such as the Vikings made a pitch for 2013’s hot-shot free agent, they barely had a chance. It was time to go south, where he could breathe – figuratively, and a bit literally.

“The [Vikings] had come to the pointwhere they were telling him, ‘You don’t have to live here, just be here during the season,’ ” Wallace’s father, Mike Jr., said by phone this week. “He wanted to get out of that snow and cold weather.”

Wallace didn’t last a day on the open market before signing a five-year contract with the Dolphins earlier this month. The deal will pay him on average roughly $12 million annually, and yet, he actually left money on the table, his dad claims.

The Vikings offered more, according to Mike Jr. , but Wallace said no thanks. The Rams and Seahawks were among the teams he said also expressed interest. The feeling apparently was not mutual.

“[Miami] feels like home,” Mike Wallace III told The Miami Herald on Thursday. “I’m just excited for a new start. On to the next chapter.”